dream big

With each New Year, opportunities for change and renewal arise; a time when fresh ideas, hopes and wishes are born. It is true that we can ignite change at any moment in our lives – that we needn’t wait until the first of the month, or Monday, or for the elusive ‘perfect moment’ to begin – but there is something wondrous and welcoming about the start of a New Year; a blank canvas for which our dreams and creativity await form and application.

But when faced with a blank canvas, what should we paint? What hues should we select and what if we run out of colour halfway through? Worse still – what if we stare woefully at the blank page before us, a sense of rising dread as we consider our forgotten finesse for creativity?

In answer to these very real and experienced questions, I invite you to cast your mind back to when you were a child. Rarely, as children, did we ever stop to ponder our ability to create when faced with fresh pots of paint and paper. Instead, with little hesitation, we’d dive in, barely stopping to roll up our sleeves as we repeatedly dipped our brushes, in and out. It didn’t matter if the colours became mixed or the paper became saturated and soaked. Nor did we care if our brush strokes were sloppy and without direction. After splashing a myriad of colour in every which way, we’d pause – and then confidently state our masterpiece, even if it looked nothing of the sort: “Look – a house! A sun! A crocodile!”

Children don’t analyse their visions and dreams, they simply create according to their own unique perspective.

So don’t fret if, as you pen down your wish to lose fifteen pounds or more, you are nibbling away at the left over Christmas chocolates, or dousing your front with fallen crumbs of turkey and cranberry sandwiches. Today is for creative dreaming, the doing will surely follow.

3 Tips Get Clear About The New Year

New Years resolutions are a thing of the past, with many choosing to embrace a word or theme for the year ahead, something that embodies all aspects of our lives; Mind, Body and Spirit. For example, my focus this year is CONNECTION. I would like to be more connected to myself and my spiritual practice. I wish to be more connected with my body’s needs and to listen to it’s subtle whispers when it come to my health. And of course, I would like to strengthen the connections I have with friends and family, as well as forming new connections that inspire and uplift. Will you embrace a theme for the year? And if so, what word will you choose?

Journal Activity: Take a notepad. Give one page each to the following categories: Health, Possessions, Leisure, Relationships, Creativity, Career, and Spirituality. Like a child faced with fresh pots of paint and paper, move out of your logic mind and into the creative mind! List ten wishes in each area, and allow yourself to dream a little here!

As well as embracing the new, it is important for us to release the past. We can thank the past for the wisdom and lesson’s it has brought, but with renewed clarity comes the opportunity to let go of anything that has been holding us back. Is there something or someone you would like to release? This could be a trait, a habit, or even a toxic relationship? For example, mine is PROCRASTINATION. I am so over procrastinating, and am willing to let this debilitating trait go moving forward. Other things to consider are: refined sugar, excessive alcohol, your negative friend who only ever calls to moan about her life…! Whatever it is, choose one thing to release moving forward and feel how wonderful it is to LET GO.

I hope you found some of these tips useful! What are your tips for getting clear about the new year? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!